Mobile Technology – Smart phones and ipads in the classroom.
Mobile technology uses software platforms that were
originally designed for purposes outside of education. Creative teachers who
understand that using ipads and smartphones the student will find this
transition familiar and if implemented correctly, engaging. This is the 21st
century students are already engaged in texting, xbox and social media.
Therefore technology rich environments will engage them (Prensky, 2005).
Using an ipad in a classroom enables students to connect with
the learning kinaesthetically, visually, auditory and verbally. Ipad apps provide
a unique instant way to teach which are intuitive to today’s students.
Ipads are affordable options using eBooks alone and many subscription
offer free updates to subjects of interest. E-Books offer many attributes over
conventional books especially when searching specific content and creating
annotations. The most endearing thing about E-books is that the hardware can
store thousands of books that would otherwise fill countless book shelves and
for this reason alone makes this attribute a permanent option for the future
learners over the previous iteration of paper based products.
Ipad core ideology is based around interactive applications
or commonly referred to as apps. Instead of having large complex softwares the
ipad breaks these monolithic entities into smaller applets that tend to focus
on just a few core functions. For this reason the author (teacher) and the user
(student) are not lumbered with steep learning curves trying to navigate user
interface and features that are not relevant to the process or the task you are
trying to accomplish.
Ipads can operate as a portable smartboard. One particular
app which I am extremely fond of is a whiteboard app called ‘sadun’s whiteboard
app’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mRah8BBvyg This whiteboard app can connect with
other ipad whiteboards using wifi. The users of this app can write on the
whiteboard and then save and export content which can be reviewed and
interacted with later. The information becomes digitised permanently, this
information which would have been lost using a traditional whiteboard.This would
be extremely useful in a math class where authentic equations are frequently
written on the white board.
Students could use Google Docs to create a group presentation
to show math vocabulary. The presentation task could include students showing a
video, an image, and a definition.
Ipads may demonstrate an engaging lesson in mathematics
however the Learning Manager should go beyond the present authoring software
and embrace later versions that reflect a change in animated transitions that
may be occurring in other softwares outside of the education system.
There are countless learning games that the Ipad offer, one
of my favourites is ‘scribblenauts’.
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